I accompanied an expedition, commanded by Colonel Vandever, of the Ninth Iowa, to the town of Huntsville, thirty-five miles distant.  Our march occupied two days, and resulted in the occupation of the town and the dispersal of a small camp of Rebels.  We had no fighting, scarcely a shot being fired in anger.  The inhabitants did not greet us very cordially, though some of them professed Union sentiments.

In this town of Huntsville, the best friend of the Union was the keeper of a whisky-shop.  This man desired to look at some of our money, but declined to take it.  An officer procured a canteen of whisky and tendered a Treasury note in payment.  The note was refused, with a request for either gold or Rebel paper.

The officer then exhibited a large sheet of “promises to pay,” which he had procured in Fayetteville a few days before, and asked how they would answer.

“That is just what I want,” said the whisky vender.

The officer called his attention to the fact that the notes had no signatures.

“That don’t make any difference,” was the reply; “nobody will know whether they are signed or not, and they are just as good, anyhow.”

I was a listener to the conversation, and at this juncture proffered a pair of scissors to assist in dividing the notes.  It took but a short time to cut off enough “money” to pay for twenty canteens of the worst whisky I ever saw.

At Huntsville we made a few prisoners, who said they were on their way from Price’s army to Forsyth, Missouri.  They gave us the important information that the Rebel army, thirty thousand strong, was on the Boston Mountains the day previous; and on the very day of our arrival at Huntsville, it was to begin its advance toward our front.  These men, and some others, had been sent away because they had no weapons with which to enter the fight.

Immediately on learning this, Colonel Vandever dispatched a courier to General Curtis, and prepared to set out on his return to the main army.  We marched six miles before nightfall, and at midnight, while we were endeavoring to sleep, a courier joined us from the commander-in-chief.  He brought orders for us to make our way back with all possible speed, as the Rebel army was advancing in full force.

At two o’clock we broke camp, and, with only one halt of an hour, made a forced march of forty-one miles, joining the main column at ten o’clock at night.  I doubt if there were many occasions during the war where better marching was done by infantry than on that day.  Of course, the soldiers were much fatigued, but were ready, on the following day, to take active part in the battle.

On the 5th of March, as soon as General Curtis learned of the Rebel advance, he ordered General Sigel, who was in camp at Bentonville, to fall back to Pea Ridge, on the north bank of Sugar Creek.  At the same time he withdrew Colonel Jeff.  C. Davis’s Division to the same locality.  This placed the army in a strong, defensible position, with the creek in its front.  On the ridge above the stream our artillery and infantry were posted.